Rye High School Men’s Soccer Coach Ben Beck has played soccer for over 50 years. Only an injury to his right knee two years ago made him finally give up playing the fast, high energy sport he loves. Not only has Beck played for over fifty years, he has coached the sport since his son turned six in 1977.

The last five years, Beck has coached at Rye High School. And this season he is also the most experienced of the coaches of the fall sports. “I’m just an old guy who has children older than most of the parents of my players,” he says with a grin.

This year the soccer team ended the season with a 6-8-1 record. Beck started the season and ended the season with 22 players. No one quit, and no one was injured enough to have to quit for the remainder of the season. In addition, five of the soccer players also played football.

“It was a little different season this year,” shared Beck. “Normally we have one or two kids who also play football but this year we also had several seniors who had never played football and wanted to experience that. I and Pat Baker (Head Football Coach) talked about it and we really wanted to support him in his first year as head football coach. Without two sport players there might not have been a football team. But it did have a cost. Five kids practiced four hours a day, four days a week. As the season progressed they felt the physical effects.”

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